In the digital age, protecting copyrighted educational content is a growing concern, especially for organizations that manage learning franchises or distribute proprietary materials across multiple locations. Ensuring that licensed partners use your content as intended — and not distribute it digitally or reproduce it beyond authorized limits — is crucial to maintaining control over your intellectual property and sustaining your business model.
At VeryPDF, we recently received a question from an educational franchise company that precisely highlights these challenges. Below is the inquiry and our detailed response, which may be helpful for other organizations facing similar concerns.
Client Inquiry
Hi,
We are an education franchise company with about 600 copyrighted workbooks.
We need our licensed learning centers to print the workbooks they need,
but prevent them from printing to PDF. We would also like to see some sort
of a report showing how many workbooks they printed on a given date range
or monthly. Is this possible with your software?Thank you.
All the best,
David, CEO
Our Response and Solution
Dear Mr. David,
Thank you very much for your thoughtful question and for considering VeryPDF as a solution for protecting your copyrighted educational materials.
Your inquiry touches on two very important points:
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Preventing digital reproduction of printed content, and
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Tracking usage or printing activity across multiple licensed locations.
We are pleased to inform you that our software — VeryPDF DRM Protector — can meet both of these needs, and we are ready to work with you to tailor the solution to your specific operational requirements.
1. Preventing Printing to PDF or Virtual Printers
Our VeryPDF DRM Protector allows you to protect your PDF-based workbooks with robust encryption and usage controls. One of its key features is the ability to restrict printing only to physical printers, effectively blocking printing to PDF files or any virtual printer software (such as Microsoft Print to PDF, Adobe PDF, or CutePDF).
This is achieved through a secure viewer application that ensures your learning centers can open and print the documents only under the conditions you specify. Once you distribute the protected workbooks, you can:
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Allow or disallow printing altogether.
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Limit printing to real hardware printers only.
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Prevent copy-paste, screen capture, or re-sharing of the documents.
This gives you complete control over how your materials are used, ensuring that unauthorized digital copies cannot be created or distributed outside of your authorized learning centers.
2. Adding Print Activity Reporting
Currently, our default version of VeryPDF DRM Protector does not include built-in analytics or reporting on the number of times a document has been printed. However, we understand the importance of this feature for educational franchises, where transparency and control over content usage is crucial.
That said, we are excited to offer you a custom development service as part of your subscription. Once you subscribe to our DRM Protector service, our team will:
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Add a print activity tracking module that logs each print event.
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Generate custom reports showing the number of times a workbook has been printed.
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Organize data by user, location, document title, and date range (daily, weekly, or monthly).
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Provide reports via dashboard access or downloadable CSV/PDF format.
We estimate this feature enhancement can be completed within 3 business days from the start of your subscription. There is no additional cost for this customization — it will be included as part of your subscription plan, as we greatly value your business and aim to support your unique requirements.
Benefits of Choosing VeryPDF DRM Protector
Here are some of the key benefits that make VeryPDF DRM Protector the right choice for education-focused enterprises:
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✅ 256-bit AES encryption to secure your documents.
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✅ Hardware printer enforcement to block PDF and virtual output.
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✅ Access control by device, user, or IP.
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✅ Dynamic watermarks showing user information on printed copies.
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✅ Print count tracking and reporting (upon request).
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✅ Integration-ready with your content management or LMS system.
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✅ Cross-platform support (Windows, MacOS, and web-based viewing).
Conclusion
If you are managing a network of learning centers and need a reliable way to protect your educational content, enforce proper usage, and monitor printing activity, VeryPDF DRM Protector offers a powerful and flexible solution.
We would be happy to schedule a live demo or provide trial access so you can see how the software works with your actual workbooks. Our team is also available to consult on the best integration strategy for your franchise model.
For more information, visit our DRM solution site:
Thank you again, and we look forward to helping you secure and manage your valuable educational assets.
All the best,
VeryPDF